What are some of the career management challenges that CMOs face? While a lot of articles focus on the CMO job, this article investigates some of the job “management” aspects of being a successful C-level leader. I began the “CMO Insight Series” to delve into some of the rarely discussed aspects of a being a CMO (see interviews with Target's CMO Jeff Jones and C2B Solutions's Co-Founder Brent Walker). For this article, I talked with Steve Cook, Founder and Managing Partner of FortuneCMO, and former Samsung Electronics SVP/CMO with global executive level experience at Coca-Cola and Procter and Gamble. What follows are five questions related to the challenges, the worries, the mistakes, and the advice Cook has for aspiring C-level marketing leaders.
Q: What is the biggest “challenge” you’ve had as a CMO?
The farther up the ladder you go, the more challenging it can be to find the “right” boss and company culture. You realize over time that “fit” is really a requirement. Do you fit well with the company culture? Is there chemistry and a strong relationship with your boss? Do you fit in well with the senior team. And yet what often happens is that companies woo you with compensation and you lose sight of the fundamental requirement: “is this a culture where I can fit and contribute to the best of my ability?”
A key part of this challenge was to fully know myself, to understand my leadership style, the culture I worked best in (and didn’t), and the types of bosses I performed best under. This takes time and experience. However, my mistake was to ignore this insight when considering one particular new job opportunity. The first question should be: “Does this job fit with my strengths and with my operating and leadership style?” The second question should be: “Is this a boss I want to work for and does s/he have a track record of developing happy and successful leaders?”
When the right company and boss fit occur, all other challenges seem to pale in comparison. The key is to land in the right environment with the right leadership and the rest of the job, which is not without its challenges, can be more easily managed.
Q: What is your biggest worry -- what “keeps you up at night”?
Cooper Harris, the founder and CEO of Klickly.com, reminded me of a Mark Twain quote: “The two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why.” I made a career shift after I figured out my “why” and started my own business. While it is very gratifying to be able to do something personally rewarding, it comes with new and unique worries.
Right now, I manage my own company, so the biggest concern when you have a start-up or are an independent contractor is to be confident that the relationships you are investing in will have a high probability of converting into clients. I use a portfolio business strategy model, working with VCs, start-up founders, PE firms and others. It can take years of cultivating a relationship before it converts into a client. And, there are ebbs and flows to the business development cycle. But this worry is pretty consistent across other similar companies. Even when the business is booming, you still worry about next year.
Q: As CMO, what has been a key “instrumental mistake” (i.e., one that provided significant insight that enabled you to perform better) that you’ve made and what did you learn from it?
This is related to the “fit” answer from the first question. I accepted a job, even though my gut was telling me that I shouldn’t. There were three big mistakes that I learned from the experience:
1) Know Thyself! Before considering any job, fully understand your own strengths (and weaknesses) and likes (and dislikes). Understand what cultures you fit in and which cultures you don’t. When you are out of alignment with the company, culture, and job, you’ll feel dissonance. This takes a toll on both mental and physical outcomes and prevents you from performing your best. Don’t take a job that isn’t a good fit, even if the compensation and other perks tempt you.
2) Reference Check Any Potential Company, your future boss, and your C-Suite peers: Before you take a job at a new company, run a reference check on the company, on your boss, and any key team members. What is the culture like? What is good / bad about the company culture? Is it about the size of your seat (senior people are revered) or about the data behind your recommendation? What is your prospective boss’ reputation? A developer of talent? What styles work well with the boss (and what styles don’t)? You can do your reference checking on company chatrooms, Google, and through LinkedIn (e.g., connect to friends of friends to gain insight on the prospective company, boss, and peers). Also, before accepting any C-level job, meet with the entire C-suite one-on-one. Finally, trust your gut. If it doesn’t “feel” right, it probably isn’t right.
3) Get it in Writing: At one point, I had accepted a C-level role with very specific organizational responsibilities. I was told this and it was in the job spec. On my first day at the company, they changed my role. I would have never accepted the job had this been transparent during the recruiting process. Your best leverage is before you sign a job offer. Period. In a memo, summarize your understanding of the job, your responsibilities, who you report to, who reports to you, etc. prior to accepting the job.
Another significant learning opportunity I had regards the management of people. Early in my career at P&G, I had an employee who just wasn’t cutting it. I consider myself humane and caring and I just couldn’t give up on him. I kept trying to make it work. Finally, I went to my boss and suggested we release the employee and my boss asked me why it took so long. Reflecting on the entire period, I now realize that I didn’t do the employee, the team, or the company any favors. The employee was miserable and I was spending a lot of time trying to fix the situation. In the end, it just wasn’t a good “fit” and I realized that it wasn’t humane to let the employee endure the pain. I also learned from my boss the power of letting employees make mistakes. He could have stepped in and pushed me to fire the employee, but the learning wouldn’t have been as poignant.
Q: What advice would you give somebody who is aspiring to become a C-level marketing leader?
1. You can never have too many Mentors. Look for mentors in all of the areas that you want to grow in. Make sure to continually refresh them over time. Make sure you find people above you to help you and “pull you up”. However, make sure that you are a good mentee. Don’t abuse the mentor’s time, show gratitude, and really listen with respect. Make sure to set expectations with your mentor (let’s talk once a year or once a month) and remember that you lead the relationship.
2. Write the outline for your Autobiography Now! As Twain suggests, what is the purpose of your life and where is your life going?
3. Stay Curious and stay Discontented. This is related to Jobs’ Stanford speech. Don’t settle for the status quo. You want to always stay curious and seek to learn. How can you grow and constantly improve?
4. Exercise both sides of your brain. Today, more than ever, marketers need to be bi-lingual – creative and analytical. If you are highly analytical, take a sculpting class; if you are very creative, take a statistics class or learn how to code.
5. Pay it forward. Once you achieve a degree of success, become a mentor. Rather than thinking about how you can take from others, think about how you can help others. Relationships become deeper and more meaningful and there is a side benefit in that it strengthens your network.
Interested in more CMO Insight? Check out the following: Deepak Advani (IBM); Duncan Aldred (Buick/GMC); Matthew Boyle (CMO, AAFCPAs); Bill Campbell (CMO, Chatham University); Steve Cook (former CMO, Samsung); Rishi Dave (CMO, Dun & Bradstreet); John Dillon (CMO, Denny’s); Kristin Hambelton (CMO, Evariant); Jeff Jones (CMO, Target); Michele Kessler (CEO, thinkThin), Antonio Lucio (CMO, HP); Tim Mahoney (Global CMO, Global Chevrolet and Global Marketing Operations Leader, GM); Jim McGinnis (Intuit); Jim Melvin (former CEO and current CMO in Tech); C. David Minifie (CMO/EVP Corporate Strategy, Centene Corp); Anne Pritz (CMO, Sbarro); Martine Reardon (CMO, Macy’s); David Roman (CMO, Lenovo); Robin Saitz (CMO, Brainshark); Ajit Sivadasan (Lenovo); Ron Stoupa (CMO, Sports Authority); Ken Thewes (CMO, Regal Entertainment Group); Scott Vaughan (CMO, Integrate); Brent Walker (CMO/Co-Founder, C2B Solutions); and Barry Westrum (EVP, International Dairy Queen).
Join the Discussion: @KimWhitler
